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Church league registers young soccer stars

Kids from age 3 to fifth grade are invited to come kick a ball around in the Fall Upward Soccer League. First Baptist Church of Wolfforth runs the league through Upward Sports.

Parents can register their children by calling the First Baptist Church office at 866-4260 or online at www.fbcwolfforth.org with payments due through PayPal.

Children will participate in seven games during the season, which will begin Sept. 25 and run through Nov. 6. There will be one game each Saturday of the season. Games will be held on land the church owns on Dowden Road, just up the street from Frenship High School.

The deadline for registering for the league is Aug. 30. The fee for taking part is $80 per child, which includes a jersey, shorts, socks and a water bottle, as well as all of the costs that go into running the league, such as fees for referees.

The cost of playing in the league this year has gone down, said Andy Miller, pastor of children and families at First Baptist Church. Last year, it was $10 more to register a child.

The church offers the league sport in order to provide a fun Christ-centered environment built around healthy competition for kids.

Miller said it is possible to have competition within a church atmosphere.

“I think it is important to have it; it’s just important to do it in the right way,” he said.

The pastor said he wants losers to be able to hold up their heads and to play again the next week, and he wants winners to not boast about their wins.

“It’s a lot of fun for all the kids, and we’d like to have as many as possible,” said Miller.

Children are best served by being taught to both win AND lose. Winning, although sweet through victory, does not bring with it the opportunity for development and growth that losing does. Losing means that one did not play as well as others on the other team. The remedy? Learning to play better, developing one’s skills and understanding the game better. All of this adds up to the win in the end.

Coddling children and saying that everyone is a winner is a complete disservice to our children. Those that don’t win don’t deserve trophies for participating. By giving them trophies the trophy to the winner is cheapened and those that did not win get something that they did not earn. Nobody in life is going to hand these kids anything for just showing up.

Only through the hard work of learning, playing as a team and winning do they earn a trophy. Losing is the reason we develop ourselves so we can be and will be that next winner. That IS the right way. That is the challenge we face every day. So meet it, embrace it and win. Anything less isn’t worth bothering with.